I am in the process of weaving my first saddle blanket. It's a weft faced 2/2 point twill using Navajo wool warp and Jason Collingwood rug yarn as the weft. 4 shafts. I should be finished with the first of two today! This pattern was veatured in Handwoven Sept/Oct 06, by Pamela Jones (pg 60). It's very strong, but soft too.

The finished blanket should be roughly square, about 34" - 36", but can be smaller or bigger depending on the size of the horse and the saddle.

Use all wool (warp and weft) as horse sweat rots cotton and linen, and synthetics don't wick the moisture. I use 2/12 wool warp (~ 1750 yards per pound) sett at 8-10 EPI. For weft I use wool, 500 - 900 yards per pound, plied or singles.

The warp must be under very high tension in order to obtain a firm, weft-faced blanket. Structure can be plain weave, but the blanket will be thin so it should be made twice as long and used doubled. Double weave or 3/1 double weave are good as you get twice the thickness.

I like to put pattern on the edges for about 6", then weave solid to the mid-point where I put a stripe or design element that will help the rider get the blanket centered on the horse.

I wrote a piece for Weavezine that might be useful -- click here. This article describes the 3/1 double weave structure, and uses it to produce a pattern on both sides of the blanket. Many riders like the fact that the two sides are different colors.

I think a baseball stitch to sew it together would be fine. I would then strengthen the join and conceal the seam on the saddle side with a narrow woven band. This approach has the warp running lengthwise on the horse, unlike the way I normally weave, with the weft lengthwise and the warp crosswise.

If you want to get some patterning on the edges you could insert discontinuous wefts, tapestry-style. Or your panels could be warp-faced and some of the techniques that Laverne has demonstrated could be used to make designs.